A brain atlas is composed of serial sections along different
anatomical plane
An anatomical plane is a hypothetical plane used to transect the body, in order to describe the location of structures or the direction of movements. In human and animal anatomy, three principal planes are used:
* The sagittal plane or latera ...
s of the healthy or diseased developing or adult animal or
human brain
The human brain is the central organ (anatomy), organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the act ...
where each relevant brain structure is assigned a number of coordinates to define its outline or volume. Brain atlases are contiguous, comprehensive results of visual
brain mapping and may include anatomical, genetic or functional features. A functional brain atlas is made up of
regions of interest, where these regions are typically defined as spatially contiguous and functionally coherent patches of gray matter.
In most atlases, the three dimensions are: latero-lateral (x), dorso-ventral (y) and
rostro-
caudal
Caudal may refer to:
Anatomy
* Caudal (anatomical term) (from Latin ''cauda''; tail), used to describe how close something is to the trailing end of an organism
* Caudal artery, the portion of the dorsal aorta of a vertebrate that passes into the ...
(z). The possible sections are
*
coronal
*
sagittal
The sagittal plane (; also known as the longitudinal plane) is an anatomical plane that divides the body into right and left sections. It is perpendicular to the transverse and coronal planes. The plane may be in the center of the body and div ...
*
transverse
Transverse may refer to:
*Transverse engine, an engine in which the crankshaft is oriented side-to-side relative to the wheels of the vehicle
*Transverse flute, a flute that is held horizontally
* Transverse force (or ''Euler force''), the tangen ...
Surface maps are sometimes used in addition to the 3D serial section maps
Besides the human brain, brain atlases exist for the
brains of the mouse,
rhesus macaque
The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies that are split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally b ...
s, ''
Drosophila
''Drosophila'' () is a genus of flies, belonging to the family Drosophilidae, whose members are often called "small fruit flies" or (less frequently) pomace flies, vinegar flies, or wine flies, a reference to the characteristic of many s ...
'',
pig and others.
Notable examples include the
Allen Brain Atlas
The Allen Mouse and Human Brain Atlases are projects within the Allen Institute for Brain Science which seek to combine genomics with neuroanatomy by creating gene expression maps for the mouse and human brain. They were initiated in September 2 ...
,
BrainMaps,
BigBrain, and the work of the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM).
See also
*
Connectome
A connectome () is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain, and may be thought of as its " wiring diagram". An organism's nervous system is made up of neurons which communicate through synapses. A connectome is constructed by t ...
*
Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the structure and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defin ...
*
Stereotaxic atlas
*
Stereotaxy
Stereotaxy (from ''stereo'' meaning "solidity", and '' tactile'' meaning "touch") refers to any technique that involves the recording and reproduction of three-dimensional haptic information or creating an illusion of depth to the sense of touch w ...
References
{{reflist
Neuroanatomy
Biological databases